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Top 5 Wombat Controversies

We're over a decade in this league, and it's fair to say we've had some controversial moments.  Tempers have flared, words were said that were hurtful, and at points, all of us have gotten emotional.  That said, let's capture history, and use this as a therapeutic look at our friendship over the course of the greatest fantasy baseball league ever created. 



#5: 4 offensive keepers, ahead of his time


This wasn't a huge controversy, more of something that we all rolled our eyes about and just chalked it up to Jon being Jon.  Going into the 2012 year, it was decided to do away with the point system of the NL, and instead adopt the category system of the AL.  A move loved by all.  This was decided at some point during or after the 2011 season, and Jon felt he wasn't "prepared" for that change, since he didn't like his keeper options.  Back then, we still had the rule that you must keep at least 1 pitcher.  


At the time, Jon had opted for a strategy of starting as many closers as possible, since saves were easier to come by than wins, and had the same point value.  With a category system, an ace is clearly more valuable than a closer though.  Most of us would have said "oh well, at least I have an elite closer going into the draft", but not Jon.  Commish Covey had to hear from Jon all about it, and how it's not fair, whine whine whine, bitch bitch bitch.  


In the end Jon got his way, and got to keep Pablo Sandoval, instead of Brian Wilson.  Good for him. 




#4 - COLLUSION

This is hard to write about from a historical perspective, because I simply cannot find the actual transaction that made this a controversy.  That said, let me say that when this happened, I was LIVID. 

 

I believe this happened in the first few years of Wombat, and Nick G. was taking offers from everyone for pieces on his team in exchange for draft picks.  Jon and I were after the same relief pitcher, and after some long negotiations, Nick accepted Jon's offer over mine.  Except I offered Nick a better pick.  His reasoning for taking the lesser value? He didn't want to see me win the World Series. 


My reaction to that...well, it may have been a bit over the top.  I accused the entire league of collusion, may have said some hurtful things to Nick AND Jon, and had a full on temper tantrum.  To be fair, it still is bullshit.  It's not like trading for a player, where value is subjective.  My offer WAS better.  Nick was just being an asshole.  


To be fair to Nick though, he was being an asshole - to ME.  Maybe I deserved it.  


#3 - Taking advantage? 


Part of being new to our league is LEARNING the league - learning how fantasy baseball works in general, how our specific rules and set up work, the types of players our league values, etc.  Coming into the league not from the start is  tough learning curve, and generally speaking, it takes a GM 2-3 years to get their footing.  


During that time though, certain GM's circle like hyenas over prey.  Just waiting to grab the new owners best players, in exchange for something not close to fair value.  It's happened time and time again.  Some SUPPOSED examples of this include: 


  • Dean's early trades with Kev Bomb.  Kev was new to the league, and Dean's boy.  In 2009, Kev's first year, he made 5 total trades, 4 of which were with Dean. 

  •  Jon's many, many trades with Mike.  

  • My trades with anyone new to the league 


Now - it's important that you caught that I said SUPPOSED.  That's because I don't actually know how much of this was GM's taking advantage of new ones.  That implies the new GM doesn't know what they're doing, which is insulting/not always the case.  It also is totally subjective - it's player based, and players perform different ways than we expect them to.  For example, go look at Dean's trades with Kevin from 2009.  Yes, there is a lot of them, but none really stick out as highway robbery.  If anything, Kev made out, when he got a prime Jacoby Ellsbury from Dean in exchange for B.J. Upton.  


All of that said - at the time, some of these were DEFINITELY controversial.


#2 - 2007 NWL Trade Deadline


In 2007 we were rookies - we just didn't know what we were doing.  I had played fantasy baseball once before, but it was nothing like Wombat.  So for those first few years, we just had to figure some things out the hard way.  One of those mistakes was the date of the 2007 trade deadline in the NWL. 


For some reason, it was set to the end of the regular season, or at least VERY close to it.  This made it so that any bad team had incentive to trade everyone but keepers for draft picks, or better keepers.  Not that different than now, except doing it so late in the season can change the playoff picture vastly.  


Naturally,  I was one of those bad teams. 

 

In an effort to upgrade my keepers, I made the following trade with the first place Power Bolts: 


Crab Cakes receive: 



Alfonso Soriano OF

Power Bolts receive: 




Barry Bonds - OF

Tom Glavine - SP

Ken Griffey Jr. - OF

Troy Tulowitzki - SS


Jon, fighting against the Bolts in his division, got very..."animated". 



Example of Jon being "animated"


He was extremely unhappy that this was allowed to happen.  He was, actually, right.  We should have had an earlier trade deadline.  We just didn't though, so no rules broken.  To make it worse for Jon, his point was especially proven by the Power Bolts eliminating him in the playoffs, then winning the World Series (no one was stopping Jake Peavy that year either way). 


#1 - The OBP vote

On base percentage was one of the original 5 offensive categories when we started the league in 2007, but would be taken out in favor of runs within a few years.  Fast forward some more, and in the off season of 2016 a fierce debate was underway: Bring OBP back, and place of average.

 

Heated Facebook conversations were had, as well as some in Dean's office.  I'll save recapping what the arguments for and against were, since it's something that STILL get talked about to this day.  On the pro OBP contingent was myself, Bran, Nick, and Mike.  The against side was Jon, Dean, and Kevin.  Where things got complicated though was Carl had just left the league, with Matt coming back into the fold.  Debate then raged on if Matt should even HAVE a vote, since he was new. 


Ultimately, it was decided he would have a vote - he could either force a tie, which meant nothing would change, or vote yes, and OBP goes through.  In my head, I decided it wasn't fair to Matt  to throw the DECIDING vote on him, coming in to the league after 5 plus years.  I decided to "fall on my sword" as I put it to Bran and Nick, and changed my vote to "Nay". 


Chaos then ensued.  I still haven't been forgiven.

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